Digital-first marketing is a growing trend, even if you think you’re miles ahead of your competition. What you might be missing is conversational AI.

The conversation is the defining element of a digital-first customer experience, and a major shift in the way businesses communicate with customers. Artificial intelligence has led to an evolution of customer service that’s more human than ever before, and customers are beginning to expect much more from their interactions with businesses.

Conversational marketing allows companies to interact with their customers and prospects in the most personal way. Conversations between brands and their customers online facilitate the building of relationships and trust. This technology is proven to generate a happier environment for both the customer and the company.

This will help you convert more and faster, which means happier customers and a happier company.

What is Conversational AI & Conversational Marketing

We’ve become accustomed to automatic responses and a conversational interface, which has increased the expectation for businesses to be able to act quickly. Conversational AI has made it possible for businesses to respond in real-time with a customized experience, resulting in an increase in customer satisfaction.

You’ve probably interacted with a conversational AI these past days.

What is Conversational AI?

Conversational AI is a form of artificial intelligence that uses conversations to help an end-user complete a task. They can be used to engage customers in many types of services such as support, marketing, enter a funnel, and even sales.

As the world moves toward conversational marketing, brands will only become more human. Artificial intelligence, instead of removing the human feeling, has the power to make brands more human, and help engage with customers on a more personal level.

A common use for AI to create different types of conversational marketing experiences is through voice assistants such as Amazon Alexa. 

Also, we need to consider that voice assistants like Alexa and Google Home are now built into the homes of millions of users. This means that real-time conversational marketing will let brands participate in direct and uninterrupted conversations at scale.

What is Conversational AI in Marketing?

Conversational marketing is an automated way to engage with customers. It allows internal communication between the business and its customer base in a form of enjoyable, one-on-one communication that directly targets your audience. This makes it more relevant, engaging, and valuable to them than traditional forms of direct mail, messaging, or advertising.

It is utterly important to consider that, in brand-user conversations, giving them a human touch will cause a big difference. And this is where conversational AI in marketing needs to be heading. Human-to-human interaction is always appreciated more than chatbots or other means from customers.

However, technology is making great advancements in NLU (Natural Language Understanding) and NLP (Natural Language Processing). It means that computers have started to become even more capable of understanding what is spoken or written to them. Therefore, more capable of providing an acceptable answer, if not a pleasing one.

How conversational AI works for marketing purposes

Conversational AI is a great tool for marketers to use to gather insights such as key data points, purchasing patterns, consumer habits, and preferences.

AI can be programmed to learn what questions are being asked during conversations and how those questions are answered. It can store that information in the cloud to facilitate the creation of a more personalized customer experience. Later, this will offer you better tools to guide upsell conversations.

Brands can use this technology to be better prepared when it comes time to engage customers and solve problems.

Increasing user engagement

When companies enable their customers to start conversations with their brands, they increase user satisfaction and the chances of being followed up with. Visitors won’t have to fill out lengthy forms. Instead, they’ll be able to have a conversation instantly.

The data and insights you get from the conversations are invaluable, especially the feedback collected from them. For most businesses, it means higher conversion rates, more opportunities to engage with customers, and a more personalized experience.

A Deeper Understanding of Your Customer’s Desires & Needs

Conversational platforms can be used to ask questions to get to the right people and give them the right information at the right time. They are great for tasks that require simple searches and questions. Also, they can help manage complex customer service interactions and increase the efficiency of your customer support. Thereby saving you time and money.

You can also customize your conversational AI to fit your needs by asking more targeted questions based on the information the customer provides.

All this will help you reach a better understanding of what your customers need at that moment, what they wish for, or maybe how to persuade them better.

Personalized & Adaptable Customer Journey

Personalization is essential for conversational marketing. When crafting robust responses to questions, brands should ensure that they take into account previous interactions with their user base.

Personalization helps brands deliver an exceptional service to their customers, increasing loyalty and nourishing a more personal relationship with consumers.

The same goes for the customer journey. By tailoring their services and offerings to fit the needs of their customers, businesses can be able to satisfy them in the best possible way and build a strong relationship.

Offering personalized and adaptable interactions can become a key component in building customer loyalty and increase brand awareness.

Conversational AI applications you might consider & why

What’s the best way to reach customers these days? It’s the conversation that matters the most. Companies need to focus on customer experience and listen to what their customers are saying.

Technology is changing rapidly and businesses need to be ahead of the curve. Conversational marketing is a major trend in the industry and companies that fail to embrace this approach will most likely fall behind.

With digital interaction gaining more power as audiences and customers grow more fond of them, conversational AI is something every brand should aim at.

Let’s look at why brands need to leverage conversational marketing to get ahead.

Attracting new customers by offering amazing experiences

It is important to consider how messages are conveyed around the brand and how they resonate with customers. Consumers are always seeking a positive brand experience. They want to be treated as customers and not as consumers.

If your brand communicates a more traditional or conservative image, consumers may be put off by this. Therefore, communication strategies are incredibly important.

In this case, Conversational AI can become a powerful tool that helps marketing campaigns and facilitate purchase decisions. It can help address issues and questions for customers at every stage of the customer lifecycle, from discovery to checkout.

It’s also an important tool for building customer loyalty because it provides a positive experience for customers.

Reaching and, why not, surpassing your competitors.

There is a high, positive impact Conversational AI can have on a brand’s strategy and campaigns. Precisely this is the exact motive why many brands have embraced them and integrated them into their processes.

Considering this, integrating a Conversation AI platform into your team rises as a key tool towards better performing campaigns and funnels.

Top applications of Conversational Ai in Marketing

Chatbots

Web chatbots are an invaluable resource for any marketer. Chatbots can automate your business processes and save you time, but they are also really useful for specific tasks. For example, chatbots can be programmed to answer common questions at any time of the day. They can also learn over time and become more conversational, so they can answer more questions as you add more products or services to your website.

Voicebots

Voice bots are the solution to today’s customer service challenges. They don’t just allow customers to interact with companies in a way that’s faster and more convenient than typing in a query. They also help them connect with a company that provides high-quality customer service. Their added convenience and efficiency are worth strongly considering.

When it comes to customer self-service tools, Voicebots are essentially a type of customer service tool. They eliminate the need for individuals to call or email and interact with a live person. Instead, they can use voice prompts to get personalized information directly to them.

Digital Assistants for Enterprises

Another use case for conversational AI is as an assistant for company employees. You can use it to assist employees with their work, including meetings, reminders, communication, and much more. It can definitively lower the internal costs, thus saving money to a company. It can also increase employee efficiency and productivity.

Voice Assisted Websites

Having a website with an integrated VoiceBot is a revolutionary service that allows websites to connect to their customers and provide them with real-time assistance. With such a tool, websites can provide personalized directions and information about a product/service quickly and easily. It can also transfer people over to customer support or sales teams. The service is like a virtual assistant that recognizes the voice of each visitor and knows everything about the company’s product/service, guiding them from one point to another.

Voice Applications

The digital generation, those who grew up with technology at their fingers, understand that there is a huge advantage to being connected to the information you need when you need it.

But, as much as the younger generations seek convenience, they also value quality service. Many want to do business online, but they also demand more than simply placing a purchase order.

Voice applications, in this case, have the right capabilities to cover such demands. They enable users to start conversations with brands and to receive support. A brand can customize a voice application to allow users to enter a funnel, get information about their products/services, and buy them.

Using voice technologies like Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, you can create a more personal relationship with your audience & customers. Later, this will translate to more sales and an increase in customer loyalty.

Why? Because of the convenience, easiness, and unique perspective voice interactions have.

The key benefits of Conversational Marketing

Users seem to like having a support system available 24/7, be it a chat-bot or a voice-bot.

According to Drift, 64% of internet users consider the use of chat-bots as a fast solution for most of the questions. Other studies show that, in the next couple of years, Conversational AI platforms will handle more than 80% of customer care cases.

However, there are more convenient platforms available

The use of voice assistants like Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant has gained a lot of interest lately.

Not only for its Smart Home features or as an in-car assistant but also as a way to connect users with their favorite brands. Also, you need to consider how easy it is to create Alexa Skills or Google Actions.

By doing so and launching yourself in the voice space, you will have the chance to better attract, sell, and assist customers.

The fact that there are more than 65 million Amazon Echo users worldwide, gives a hint of this platform’s reach and the potential it holds.

Also, diving deeper into data, a study from Voicebot, shows that 18% of Millenials use Amazon Alexa for product search or voice-assisted shopping.

Key benefits

A conversation with a brand can be more engaging than traditional marketing initiatives. With conversational marketing, businesses can personalize interactions with consumers through digital experiences that are tailored to their individual needs and preferences.

The result is a unique experience that extends throughout the customer journey as brands leverage various digital channels to engage with customers on a variety of devices such as digital advertisements, websites, mobile & voice apps, and more.

Some of the main benefits Conversation Ai can bring to marketing include what follows:

Customer satisfaction & deeper relationships

Conversational marketing is a powerful way to target and engage customers at each digital touchpoint. By providing conversations, businesses can increase user satisfaction, build trust and confidence, and foster loyalty.

Trust takes time to develop, but it can be built by listening and addressing problems in real-time. By listening to consumer needs, your organization can begin to build a stronger customer relationship.

Better insights, data & analytics

Conversational AI is able to scan through large volumes of data to understand your customer’s behavior and use this information to predict future needs.

Conversational AI can analyze and learn from your customers, automating processes and capturing important data points. These insights can help drive sales and improve customer service. They can also provide an endless stream of questions that you can answer so you can upsell or provide additional information in the future.

Outreach & Engagement

AI-powered conversational tools can engage leads in real-time. They help you get to the heart of a customer’s needs and build a direct relationship with them. Recent researches show that lapses between first contact and marketing or sales contact affect whether leads are converted into customers. Later, you can use such platforms to reach leads with information, offers, and relevant marketing messages. This can help you convert more leads and increase revenue.

Higher conversion and quality leads

If you use conversational AI correctly, your customers will be more likely to convert than if you rely on traditional live chat. You can set up Conversational AI to respond to customer questions right before they’ve made a decision. Conversational AI can improve conversion rates by as much as 40%.

Since AI technology is constantly improving, it works very well to analyze big data blocks and find out the ideal customers for your business. Chatbots are an excellent way to collect huge data sets while also searching through them to help you identify potential leads.